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Freedom Solar reviews
• updated APR 10, 2026Loading map...
The Verdict
Freedom Solar presents a split personality that demands careful scrutiny. On one hand, we found 51 reviewers describing seamless installations with honest sizing advice, meticulous permit handling, and installers who actually climbed on roofs instead of relying on satellite photos. One customer praised the team for fixing electrical connections they hadn't even installed, and another noted zero roof leaks after record rainfall. On the other hand, we uncovered a troubling pattern of post-installation abandonment. Three separate customers reported multi-month delays in getting systems operational, with one household paying a $3,000 electric bill after their panels sat broken for a year while the company insisted nothing was wrong. Another customer spent four months chasing two failed permit inspections and had to troubleshoot a malfunctioning monitor themselves because the company refused site visits. The workmanship scores high at 4.8 out of 5, but post-sale support drops to 4.3, with reviewers describing unanswered emails, blame-shifting to utilities, and sudden payment demands mid-crisis.
If you want a company that will show up for the installation and vanish afterward, this fits the bill. But if you expect the same attentiveness after signing the contract as before, you'll likely join the chorus of customers who felt abandoned the moment their deposit cleared.
3 Stories That Stood Out
JandL M. brought Freedom Solar in to replace a previous installer and, at first, everything looked promising: Rich, the CEO and owner, came across as knowledgeable and personable, and the crew completed an efficient, on-time installation that even worked around a rainy day. After that smooth start, the project slowly fell apart. They hit more than four months of delays driven largely by paperwork and inspections — two permit inspections failed because the layout drawings, diagram and placard were incorrect — and they spent a lot of time chasing status updates by email because nothing appeared on the inspector’s schedule until they pushed for it. About four weeks after the install, the Enphase monitoring stopped communicating; rather than sending a technician, the company repeatedly pushed the troubleshooting onto the homeowner. They ended up spending hours on the phone with Enphase, received a replacement circuit board, and had to photograph and send proof of the replacement to Freedom Solar. Even though Enphase is Freedom’s vendor, no representative from the installer came out to diagnose the monitor. When the system was finally working more than four months later, Freedom Solar’s
Eric Z. pursued a SunPower rooftop system through Freedom Solar in Campbell (95008), handed over a $1,000 deposit, and expected the usual back-and-forth of permits and inspections. Before signing everything moved quickly and everyone seemed responsive, but once the deposit cleared the company largely went silent. After more than three months of little more than promises, Freedom Solar suddenly scheduled an install with two days' notice; a crew arrived the next day with screws and started without further warning. The crew swapped the promised Ironridge Flashfoot 2 (described as equivalent to Pegasus) for QuickBolt hardware instead — a newer time-saving method — and the physical install and city inspection finished cleanly. Then the real problems began. PGE’s Permission to Operate (PTO) never came because the utility was still waiting for the installer to upload required documents, yet Freedom Solar repeatedly demanded final payment, arguing their contract required payment after city inspection regardless of utility approval. Eric, who holds a PhD in electrical engineering and followed the process closely, refused to pay until PGE signed off. Billing escalated the pressure — even fl
Charles completed a battery upgrade to the existing Freedom Solar system on his home and found the whole process smooth and dependable. He discovered clear scheduling and on-time crews, and the team finished the upgrade promptly. The installation looked tidy and seamless — a noticeable contrast with the amateurish shortcuts he’d seen from other providers. What lingered most in his mind was the crew’s ownership: they returned several times to sort a few small details, willingly inspected equipment they hadn’t installed, and even corrected a couple of electrical connections that weren’t their responsibility. Having used Freedom Solar twice over the past decade, he values their attention to detail and knows they’ll be his first call for future work because they fixed problems beyond the job’s scope.
Platforms Monitored
Performance by Work Type
How We Got To Trust Score 78
No Red Flags
Unauthorized Activities
Passed screening
Misleading Claims
Passed screening
Background Check
Serving customers for 16 years
Among the longest-standing installers in the market.
BBB Rating: A+
Excellent BBB standing. Strong complaint resolution.
Natural Review Patterns
Reviews were posted naturally over time.
What You Can Expect
Deb had Freedom Solar install Sunrun panels on her Campbell, California home a little over a year ago and came away impressed by how smoothly the whole project ran. She found Mr. Kennedy, the sales rep, especially memorable — he arrived with satellite maps that showed exactly how much sun each portion of the roof received, which made the system layout easy to visualize and trust. The installers kept to their schedule, the Sunrun equipment has proved reliable, and the biggest day-to-day benefit has been seeing the PG&E bill drop to a minimal charge on sunny days. After installation, the team walked her through the Sunrun monitoring reports so she could compare electricity produced versus used and feel confident reading the data herself. She also included a caveat for other shoppers: Freedom Solar locations outside Campbell are separate businesses, so some Yelp reviews may refer to different offices. The standout detail that stuck with her was Kennedy’s satellite analysis combined with the hands-on training that let her actually watch production offset her usage.
In a January 2023 install on her home, Kathleen chose Freedom Solar for the panels and later added a battery Powerwall after getting fed up with the outages. The battery went in the following month, and what stood out most was how smoothly the whole process stayed from sales through installation. Mike Obot kept her in the loop, the team stayed easy to reach when questions came up, and the result was a system built not just for sunshine but for the backup power she had been wanting.
Kathleen had Freedom Solar put up her solar panels in January 2023, and after dealing with frequent outages she returned to them last month to add a Powerwall battery for backup. She appreciated that the same team — including sales rep Mike Obot — handled the follow-up work, and she noticed how consistently they kept her in the loop from start to finish. The standout detail for her was accessibility: someone was always available to answer questions and provide updates, so the project never felt left hanging. In the end she walked away with both a rooftop system and a battery and a clear memory of prompt, steady communication throughout the process.
Charles completed a battery upgrade to the existing Freedom Solar system on his home and found the whole process smooth and dependable. He discovered clear scheduling and on-time crews, and the team finished the upgrade promptly. The installation looked tidy and seamless — a noticeable contrast with the amateurish shortcuts he’d seen from other providers. What lingered most in his mind was the crew’s ownership: they returned several times to sort a few small details, willingly inspected equipment they hadn’t installed, and even corrected a couple of electrical connections that weren’t their responsibility. Having used Freedom Solar twice over the past decade, he values their attention to detail and knows they’ll be his first call for future work because they fixed problems beyond the job’s scope.
Anthony L. had a SunPower system installed on his home in 2013 and noticed a problem with the SunPower monitoring portal in June 2019. He emailed Susan Moore at Freedom Solar; she answered while on vacation in Spain and quickly traced the portal glitch to a faulty microinverter. She then coordinated with SunPower to replace all of the system’s microinverters with SunPower’s newer, factory-made units, and SunPower completed the swap. He’s experienced excellent service from SunPower over the years and highlights Freedom Solar — and Susan’s responsiveness, even from abroad — as the detail that made the difference.
Danny had Freedom Solar install panels on his Arizona home more than a year ago. He found the crew professional and singled out their help getting the system up and running as the most memorable part of the experience. He wrapped up his feedback with a thank-you to the company. For buyers who care about a smooth, hands-on commissioning process, his experience points to Freedom Solar delivering reliable, professional support through installation and start-up.
Yogi B. had Freedom Solar install a rooftop system years ago and has repeatedly been surprised by how strong the follow-up has been. What stood out most was the ongoing support from Michael and Rich — they became the go-to team members, responding quickly and delivering practical solutions whenever questions arose. That steady, high-touch responsiveness long after the install is the detail that stuck with them and defines the whole experience.
Connie M. chose a SunPower system for her Los Altos home a few years ago and discovered it fit her needs perfectly. She noticed the company’s remote monitoring kept tabs on performance and even flagged when the connection dropped, prompting a simple modem reboot message so she didn’t have to diagnose problems herself. Rich Moore guided the whole process with patient answers to her many questions, and she felt he delivered on his promises with clear integrity. The system ended up sized just right — handling her original load and absorbing extra demand after she added air conditioning and an electric car charger — and she hasn’t had any issues since. Years later she still leaned on Rich for help; he walked her through competing proposals for a second home in Hawaii, laying out pros and cons and doing so without charging or expecting anything in return. The detail that stuck with her was the ongoing, hands-on support — monitoring that proactively alerts her and a salesperson who will spend time helping even when no sale is on the line.
Jaime H. went into this project feeling good about it after a careful, pressure-free sales process, with Kris Richards helping design a solar setup paired with two Tesla Powerwall 3 batteries for a home that was supposed to be ready for backup power by fall 2025. The install itself wrapped in October 2025, and city inspection passed about two weeks later, but that’s where the smooth part ended. After that, the system sat in limbo because Freedom Solar kept submitting Duke Energy’s interconnection paperwork with avoidable mistakes — wrong or missing battery details, incorrect equipment on one-line diagrams, mismatched names across documents, wrong battery capacity, and even a missing Tier 2 fee. Duke rejected the application more than six times, and Jaime ended up receiving those rejection notices directly, having to call attention to each problem before anyone at the company corrected and resubmitted it. The result was a fully installed solar-plus-storage system that still couldn’t be turned on, leaving him paying for equipment he couldn’t use while his full electric bills kept coming in. What stuck with him most was the gap between the polished sales experience and the post-sale,
Long-term Satisfaction
Long-term customers rate Freedom Solar 5.0 ★ — higher than early reviews. This growth is better than 99% of installers we looked at.
Long-term reviews carry the most weight in our methodology because they are most representative of what you should be paying for: a system that will perform for years.